By Katie K. Bell
Dr. Dennis Perman brings his passion to work.
As one of the founding partners of The Masters Circle, a highly specialized
and unique leadership training and practice-building organization, Dr. Dennis
Perman spends his days coaching chiropractors on personal growth and professional
practice building. These emotional, intense coaching sessions often leave him
drained. Yet, he has a not-so-secret weapon at his disposal: musical talent.
For many, music simply means turning on the radio while sitting in traffic,
for Perman it is an essential part of his survival. Because it means so much
to him, he has taken his passion for good vibrations and found creative and
useful ways to incorporate it into his work and home life. “Chiropractic
philosophy is about making the body work properly and it also involves proper
vibration,” says Perman. “Music affects people at such a deep level
because it affects their nervous system. It is this neurological impact that
makes music so enjoyable. If you think listening makes you feel good, try playing.”
And that he does. Skilled in drumming, guitar and piano (not to mention songwriting),
Perman began his journey with music at the age of five. “My father was
a band leader and a saxophone player, my mother was a singer, so there was always
music in my home,” he recalls. “I started piano when I was five,
what I really wanted to do was bang on stuff so my parents thought it might
be a good idea to bang on the piano. Suddenly some pretty good stuff started
to come out.” His parents encouraged Perman to continue in piano and at
the tender age of eight, he received his first electric guitar from his father.
“The strings were so tight and fat I could barely hold down a chord, but
I loved it. This was at a time when rock and roll was really starting to happen.”
Indeed, as the fates would have it, Perman’s, musical epiphany occurred
in tandem with a rising rock ’n’ roll sensation, The Beatles.
“When The Beatles came along, music became more about the song,”
explains Perman. In sixth grade he wrote a book of poetry. “That’s
when I got fascinated with the whole concept of what you could do with music.
Watching crowds of people react to music and the energy that music creates,
it was just unbelievable for me.”
“I started my first band at age 12. We had two accordionists and a drummer;
we called ourselves The Gents of Jazz, and we wore lace cuffs and shirts,”
he recalls with a chuckle.
Of course every path encounters obstacles. For Perman it was making the choice
between leaving his girlfriend (now wife) for a rock star life in California
or staying put and pursuing a professional life. “When my dad suggested
I enter chiropractic college I made the decision to pursue it as a career. It
seemed like a great way to stay with my girlfriend.”
While he grew his chiropractic career with the same zeal he gave to music, the
tradeoff was leaving his musical side dormant for a while. “Of course
I became completely engaged in chiropractic work and ended up not spending time
on music at all.”
Yet, passions have a way of bubbling up and today Perman has ingeniously incorporated
music into most aspects of his working and non-working life. “I have a
‘studio’ which is basically a computer that records a song one track
at a time and when the music is finished you sing over it.” This studio
has been the foundation for some of his musical creations. When he first began
his practice, he sought an alternative to the ‘elevator’ music being
played in his office. “I wanted to have some decent music in the office
so I came up with an Office Songs CD comprised of original music by me with
commercials for chiropractic laced in between songs.”
While working for personal growth superstar, Tony Robbins (the firewalking guru),
Perman developed numerous parodies of popular songs. He rewrote the lyrics and
used the songs to teach, inspire and motivate people in seminars. Since then
he has written numerous song parodies about chiropractic teachings.
Presently he is using music in many of the products used by the Masters Circle.
“Our inspirational teaching CD/Audio magazine, MasterTalk, features music
in between segments, says Perman. “We think music is critically important
because it involves vibration, which is a part of healing. In MasterTalk we
use music to weave together the subject matter. It is in this way that being
a musician is very helpful within the healing realm.”
Probably one of the biggest perks of being so musical is the connectedness he
has with his children. “My son Jeremy is a master of making things sound
exactly right and he orchestrates the MasterTalk audio for us into a seamless
museum quality unit,” he says. Another son is a drummer for a band in
New York City called the Vinyl Addicts, and yet another son works as an actor,
“plays saxophone and sings beautifully,” gushes Perman. “We
go to concerts together, we play together, it bridges the gap in the generations
so beautifully, there’s no question that music does keep us connected.”
Keeping music in his life has not always been easy. It takes effort to set aside
time for playing and staying fresh. “I know that people find time for
things that are important to them, it’s whether or not they put a priority
on the music; you must have a goal. It only becomes a goal when you quantify
it, and unless you are willing to quantify, it’s not a goal it’s
a dream.”
So what does Dr. Perman suggest for musically inclined individuals? “The
things you schedule are the things you follow through on, if you want to pursue
your passion for music you need to schedule it,” says Perman. Clearly,
making the time is worth it, as he explains, “The inner peace I achieve,
the outlet for creativity and the pleasure you give to others, those are the
things that make music so wonderful.”